Draft Question

Yes. Is that a good thing?

 

Yes. Proper airflow through the burnpot results in short, lively flame with a slight blue tint at the base. Long, lazy, orange-ish flames with black-ish tips indicate either a dirty stove or lack of burn air.....or both. In this case, if you're seeing livelier flames, I'm guessing your OAK is just way too long, located on the wrong side of the chimney top, or a combo of both.

 

Ok. Great. I'm even seeing the pellet embers flying out of the burnpot. But my little white plastic screw came all the way clockwise.

 

That's a GOOD thing!

 

Now do I dare ask another theoretical question. If the white plastic screw came all the way clockwise, can you ever be in an overdraft situation whereas you're losing heat through the chimney pipe?

 

First, what is the "white plastic screw" supposed to do? If it adjusts the amount of draft, and full clockwise is max draft, then the answer is Yes. Too much draft could just be sending the heat generated right up the exhaust before the heat exchanger had time to extract the most it can.

Back when I had my first stove, an Avalon Astoria, the owners manual directed you to increase the draft until you could see the burning pellets at the bottom of the burn pot "dancing" a little. If they got thrown out of the pot, that was excessive draft. Conversely, too little draft meant the burning pellets didn't move at all. It was a trial & error method.....as the stove & exhaust got dirtier, air flow decreased and you had to increase draft a little.
When the stove got completely cleaned, then you had to back the draft off to your starting point.

Hope this helps.

 

All good now folks. I pulled my OAK off and now I have a nice healthy flame. Must have been the install.

 

I have NO doubt about that

 

X2
Now the question is to block or not to block the OAK piping? From what I was reading in this thread, I would be concerned of exhaust gases coming back into the household.

 

Oh boy. Thought I was done! Thoughts?

 

That has to be one of the most horrible Dealer / Pro installs I've ever seen posted , Sorry Man somebody had to say it .

 

Is it that bad?

 

Yes , look in the manual it shows several different installs , you won't find yours .

 

The tape job or the horizontal OAK? Lol. The inside piping doesn't even have silicone. It's all taped as he said it would be easier to clean which I guess is why I smell smoke on start up.

 

Guess I should plug the OAK on the inside since possible fumes from the outside? If so, what would I use?

 

You need someone who knows WTF they are doing. I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to run that thing with the OAK attached and have zero smoke smell at start up. Wood burning devices aren't plug and play and seems whoever you had do your install it was a plug and pray job. If it were me and I could do the work that install would get fixed really fast. It was not exactly by the book or even close. Get a hold of someone with a Harman diagnostic meter and have that install reworked. We just applied a bandage to an azz pimple. DAG NAB IT IF I WANTED TO SAY AZZ I WOULD HAVE SAID WHAT I WANTED AND NEEDED TO SAY MOD SYSTEM.

 

Fill one end with a towel.

 

Told you it was a nap, I'm likely fine for about 6 hours. Then it will be take a pill and go to bed for the night.

ETA: I took advantage of the boss shopping to move pellets this morning. Wear out the bear it did.

 

Sort of but not quite the case, it is supposed to stop smoke leakage when the power goes out.